quantum computer

The computing power of computers keeps growing fast. The number of transistors on a microprocessor double every 18-months.  Even so, the progress of the computer technology still can't satisfy the needs of science research and development of other technologies. It is hard to satisfy the demands of computing power by upgrading traditional digital computer, but there's a type of computer, quantum computer, that can increase the computing power tremendously.

Computers nowadays are basically digital computers. This type of computer computes on a binary system which uses 0s and 1s, called bits. The states of bits are either 0 or 1. Quantum computer, on the other hand, uses qubits to do calculation. Unlike bits, qubits are not limited in two states. They can exist in a superposition states. Since quibits can stay in multiple states, they give quantum computers a potential to be a million stronger than today's most powerful supercomputer.

The superposition of quibits gives quantum computers parallelism. This parallelism allows quantum computers to work on million computation at a time, while the desktop PC can only work on one. In addition to this, a phenomenon called "quantum entanglement" also makes quantum computers powerful.(this phenomenon is also used in quantum teleportation) With quantum entanglement, scientists can know the state of one quibit instantly by observing the other quibit that it is entangled with. This portrait of quantum mechanism will increase the speed of information transmitting, and end up improving the data processing.

As the improvement of technology, our demand for a more powerful computer will never disappear. If we invent a practical quantum computer successfully, there will be a big burst on scientific research  and improvement of technology. Moreover, a secret code that takes the present computers hundreds of years to break will no longer be powerful. Therefore, the first country which invents quantum computer will be able to know the deepest secrets of other countries.